


where the love light gleams

by KagekaNecavi



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Stargate, F/M, M/M, POV Outsider, Stargate Atlantis Secret Santa, Stargate Atlantis Secret Santa 2019, Trope Subversion/Inversion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:40:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KagekaNecavi/pseuds/KagekaNecavi
Summary: Though he'd never tell Jeannie this, Kaleb was of the opinion that she and her brother were a lot alike. They were both stubborn, opinionated, and thought that what worked out for them would work out for everyone. He just hoped her plan of setting Rodney up on a date while he was visiting for the holidays wouldn't end too disastrously.
Relationships: Jeannie Miller/Kaleb Miller, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Comments: 14
Kudos: 129
Collections: Stargate Atlantis Secret Santa 2019





	where the love light gleams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mific](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mific/gifts).



> Warning for some sexist, slut shaming language directed at an original character, some mild off screen violence, and some potentially abelist language directed at a canon character. Rated teen and up and not general because I have a potty mouth and I assume Rodney does too.
> 
> Takes place in a non-Stargate AU around Christmastime, but there's not much Christmas stuff in it - the time frame is more a plot device than anything. Happens in a year before cell phones were common, also for plot reasons.

"I know you love him, but your brother is a jackass. Why are you putting all this effort into helping him find someone?" Kaleb asked, handing Jeannie a sock to pair with one from the giant pile of single socks at her side. 

"I'm hoping that it will mellow him if I find him a nice partner," Jeannie frowned at the sock and compared it with the others in her pile.

That seemed kind of like a bad idea to Kaleb. Sure, some people mellowed out after getting a partner, but depending on that seemed like a terrible idea. And for all Jeannie insisted she was different than her brother, they were amazingly alike in a lot of ways. For example, assuming that something that worked well for them would work well for their sibling. Being with Kaleb and having Maddie had mellowed Jeannie out an amazing amount, but that didn’t mean the same would happen with Rodney.

* * *

Rodney was going to be visiting for a week around Christmastime, and despite Jeannie’s insistence he stay with them and despite knowing he’d be over for dinner most evenings, he’d gotten a hotel room. That ended up working out pretty well, because then Jeannie’s friend Olivia could come over early and have a glass of wine and chat while they waited for Rodney to arrive. As he cooked and listened to Jeannie and Olivia chat, Kaleb wondered just how friendly they’d be if Rodney was particularly Rodney-like at dinner. Maybe that was uncharitable of him, but he remembered very clearly what it was like the last time they’d seen Rodney in person.

The doorbell rang and Jeannie jumped up from her spot at the kitchen island. Rodney was almost exactly on time, which was very unexpected. Kaleb had assumed the hotel room was partly to be away from their vegetarianism, partly so Rodney wouldn’t have a kid underfoot, and partly so he could bring his laptop and work from the hotel room. And if Rodney was working, he’d get engrossed and be late. Not because he didn’t care - Kaleb knew that much from watching Jeannie do it, too - but just because he was so single minded when he worked.

Guess he was wrong about that assumption, at least?

“Oh, you brought John along!” Jeannie said, her voice sounding partly surprised and partly accusatory from the other room. Kaleb knew who John was - he was mentioned at least once in all of Rodney’s emails and phone calls - but he’d never met the man and wasn’t aware that Jeannie knew what he looked like.

“I assumed that John was invited, too. Was I wrong?” Rodney asked, matching Jeannie tone for tone. Great. They were going to start arguing. Kaleb glanced at the food and, assuming it wasn’t going to burn in the five seconds he stepped away, headed into the living room.

“Any friend of yours is welcome here, Rodney,” Kaleb smiled, trying for a calm and soothing tone, “we just would have liked for you to let us know. Fortunately we made more than enough food.”

It was possible that Jeannie had recognized John just from Rodney’s description, Kaleb realized as he looked at Rodney and John. Rodney had described him as about Rodney’s same height with dark, ridiculous hair. The man beside Rodney had dark hair that was sticking up in about four places.

“I told you,” John muttered to Rodney, holding out his hand to Jeannie, “Nice to meet you, Jeannie. I’m John.”

Jeannie shook his hand and then held the door open, gesturing them inside. “Come on in! And it’s nice to meet you, too! I was so glad when Mer started telling me about you - he’s never really been close to people before.”

John and Rodney exchanged glances, switching subtly and quickly before John turned to Kaleb and said, hand outstretched, “You must be Kaleb. Nice to meet you. I’m John.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Kaleb smiled a bit more and shook John’s hand. At least Rodney had the good sense to bring someone who would also help keep the peace.

Once John and Rodney had come inside fully and Jeannie had closed the door again, John glanced between Rodney and Jeannie and asked, “what were you calling him a minute ago? Mer?”

“Yeah, his first name is Meredith,” Jeannie grinned as Rodney sighed heavily and buried his face in his hands, muttering something that sounded to Kaleb like he was promising violent death to someone for this.

John opened his mouth to respond, but before he could another voice spoke up, “wait, your brother’s name is Meredith?”

Everyone turned to look at Olivia, who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, a glass of wine in her hand and her eyebrows arched.

“It means ‘lord of the sea!’ It’s a perfectly fine male name!” Rodney snapped, glaring at her, “And by the way, who are you?”

“I’m Jeannie’s friend, Olivia,” she said, smiling at John and Rodney, but it seemed aimed more at John than Rodney.

Rodney glared at Olivia and looked at Jeannie, but before he could say anything, John asked, “So where’s Madison? I was looking forward to meeting her.”

“She’s at a friend’s house. It’s been so long since Mer and I actually spoke in person that we thought it might be best for her to not be here at first,” Jeannie said, heading back towards the kitchen, “but she’ll be here later, after dinner.”

Rodney looked down, and while Kaleb couldn’t figure out the expression on his face, John clearly could because he nudged Rodney quietly and grinned at him a bit. After another short exchange of looks, John smiled at Jeannie, “So, what’s for dinner?”

* * *

It took longer than Kaleb had expected for things to go wrong. He’d expected there to be a large argument relatively soon, but he had also expected it to blow over quickly. Which may have been a bit optimistic considering the years that Jeannie and Rodney weren’t talking to each other at all.

He never found out what exactly what was said that caused the issue. Olivia had been ignoring Rodney all night, smiling and flirting with John, which made Rodney glare at her and at Jeannie, made John look really uncomfortable, and made Jeannie nudge her under the table every time she did it.

Rodney had gotten up from the dining room table to go into the kitchen and peek at the desserts - which Jeannie had forbidden anyone from eating until Madison got home - and while he was up it occured to Kaleb that he wasn’t sure how to get in touch with them while they were in town, so he turned to John and asked, “I know Rodney was planning on coming over for dinner every day, but how do we get a hold of you guys if there’s something earlier we want to do?”

“Oh, yeah, I got a card from the hotel,” John shifted in his chair, grabbing his wallet and going through it for a moment. As he did that, Olivia got up and headed into the kitchen, saying something about how she was going to grab some water. When John found what he was looking for, he held it out to Kaleb, “here, the hotel’s business card. I wrote our room number on the back.”

“Thanks,” Kaleb pulled out his own wallet and stuck the card in there after glancing at it briefly, “I know Maddie is really excited to do some Christmasy stuff with her Uncle Mer, and I’m sure she’ll love to have someone else along to spoil her.”

John let out a little chuckle. “Rodney’s been excited for this, too. He’s been him about it, of course -”

“What did you just call me?!” Olivia shouted from the kitchen, interrupting John. There was a softer murmur of Rodney’s voice, and then a loud smacking sound. Olivia came storming out, clearly furious, and grabbed her purse and her jacket. John was already on his feet and heading into the kitchen.

“What happened?” Jeannie asked, also getting up and looking at Olivia worriedly.

“Your brother is a pig. I wouldn’t date him if you paid me,” Olivia said, shoving her arms through her jacket as she strode purposefully to the door, “I know he’s your brother but maybe instead of trying to set him up with a woman you set him up with a good shrink?”

By then she’d reached the door and headed out of it, slamming it behind her. Jeannie looked back at Kaleb and then went after her. Kaleb headed into the kitchen to see what was going on there.

John was standing close to Rodney, inspecting his cheek and speaking in a sort of gentle tone. “No, Rodney, I agree, she shouldn’t have slapped you. But her being more wrong doesn’t retroactively make you right.”

“She kept flirting with you,” Rodney said mulishly. It was a tone Kaleb recognized from Madison as ‘I know you’re right but I don’t want you to be so I’m going to keep arguing.’

“Yeah, and we’re not gonna come back if she’s gonna be here,” John said.

Before anyone could respond to him, Jeannie yelled from behind Kaleb, “Meredith!! Did you really call her a whore?”

“Yeah. She was flirting with John all night. What the fuck was I supposed to do?” Rodney straightened up and glared.

“Not that! What the hell, Mer! She’s my friend and a guest in my house,” Jeannie strode into the room, glaring right back, “Do I need to sit you down with Maddie’s books to teach you how to treat guests?!”

“You know what? This was a bad idea. We’re going back to the hotel,” Rodney said, pushing past Jeannie and Kaleb. John followed after silently, grabbing their coats as he went.

Jeannie slumped against the counter and held her face in her hands, wincing as the door slammed. Again.

* * *

The next day, early enough in the morning that they hopefully wouldn’t be up and about yet, Kaleb headed to Rodney’s hotel to try and reason with him. Despite how much Jeannie didn’t seem to think it was true, Jeannie and Rodney were more than enough alike that if someone else didn’t intervene it would be years before they spoke to each other again.

The hotel was fairly large, but Kaleb found their room just fine, knocking on the door and practicing what he would say in his head a moment. He had a few things he might be able to start off with if Rodney answered, ways to not get the door slammed in his face. John answered, wearing nothing but his boxers, and Kaleb wasn’t sure what to say. Fortunately, he didn’t have to say anything. John sighed and pulled the door open further, gesturing.

Kaleb smiled and headed inside. The shower was running and steam was rolling out of the open bathroom door.

“Hey was that the door? Is it breakfast?” Rodney called out loudly.

“Nope! Come out here for a minute!” John called back, keeping a wary eye on Kaleb. The look made Kaleb uncomfortable, like he’d been sized up as an annoyance that John would get rid of if he did the slightest thing wrong.

The shower turned off. “If it isn’t breakfast, how could it be anything important?” Rodney asked, walking out of the bathroom and tying a towel around his hips. He froze when he saw Kaleb and glared, “What the hell do you want?”

That seemed really pissy to Kaleb, and he was about to say something along those lines and then he realized. John and Rodney were practically naked and didn’t seem fazed at all. He knew some people were like that with friends, but there was something else going on. Something … he glanced around the room again. The suitcases were open on one of the beds but underneath the suitcases, the bed seemed like it was still made in that weird way all hotels make their beds. The sheets on the other bed were rumpled and it looked like both sides had been slept on.

“Wait, are you and John a couple?” Kaleb asked, frowning. The bed under the pile of suitcases was neatly made, as if no one had slept there last night.

“You’re stupider than I remembered. I have no fucking clue what she ever saw in you,” Rodney sneered, clearly angry, but John just looked confused.

“You didn’t know?” John asked, then turned to Rodney, “You didn’t tell them?”

“You’ve heard me on the phone with her! I talk about you all the time! I say ‘our apartment’ and have made it clear that you are the other one i’m talking about. Who the fuck misses clues like that?” Rodney threw his hands into the air, glaring at Kaleb like this was his fault.

“But have you ever actually said I’m your boyfriend?” John pressed, “I mean, does she even know you’re bi?”

That made Rodney sigh a little, deflating dramatically. “Maybe not? I thought she knew. I realized it in college but maybe I never mentioned it to her. I know I never mentioned it to our parents, so maybe I just assumed she knew.”

“She definitely doesn’t know,” Kaleb said. Maybe it was a bad idea to interject here, but he knew that if Jeannie had known she would have said something to him.

“Wait, if you didn’t know, then was that woman last night an attempt to set him up on a date? Was that why she was so surprised to see me?” John asked.

“Yeah. She thinks Rodney needs mellowing, and having a family mellowed her out a lot so,” Kaleb shrugged.

“The hilarious thing about that is John did mellow me out a lot. So I guess she was right.”

* * *

“Before, you said you had plans for after Christmas. What are you two doing?” Jeannie asked several days later. Maddie was leaning up against Rodney and snoring gently and on TV the credits for Muppets Christmas Carol were rolling. Much to Rodney’s exaggerated horror, Madison had latched onto her uncle with glee when they met and hadn’t really stopped.

“We both still have time off until after New Year’s so we’re going to my brother’s place. That was the deal when I convinced Rodney to patch things up with you, that I’d try patching things up with my family, too. So that means spending time with both families for the holidays,” John said. He and Rodney weren’t super physically affectionate, but he had an arm around Rodney’s shoulders and they were leaning toward each other.

Kaleb and Jeannie exchanged a glance. “So … your brother knows you’re dating Rodney?”

“Yeah, and he knows I’m bringing Rodney with me, too,” John teased, giving Rodney’s ear a light flick with his thumb.

“Wait, no, I heard you on the phone with him,” Rodney said, frowning and moving to look John in the eye, “I remember that conversation. You said that you had a ‘special someone’ for him to meet. Afterwards you said that you were sure Dave knew what you meant, since you talk about me more than anyone else.”

“... shit.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from lyrics for "I'll be home for Christmas." I always struggle with titles and then I realized that since it is set around Christmas, giving it a Christmas-adjacent title would work pretty well.


End file.
